Aptly revealed at a special event in the Italian capital city, the Ferrari Roma is Maranello’s newest addition to its line-up and is meant to meet rivals such as the Mercedes-AMG GT and Aston Martin Vantage head-on.
It wouldn’t be at all surprising if this relatively compact two-door coupe indeed shares underpinnings with the convertible-only Portofino given its dimensions and engine, but Ferrari insists on the Roma’s ‘all-new’ status.
In terms of its styling, it’s a little tough to recall when the last time a Ferrari reveal was not done featuring a bright scarlet example. Perhaps to reinforce the newness of the car, the Roma’s sedate silver colour does underline its distinctive design.
The body is almost entirely void of unnecessary ornamentation, especially when viewed in profile. Instead of a black mesh grille up front, the prancing horse emblem is placed among squares of varying sizes with the largest concentrated around the centre and flanked by deep set headlights.
The front splitter, side skirts, and rear diffuser element all look to be made of carbon fibre. Interestingly, these are all left with its weave exposed and given a clear gloss finish. Its tail lights are also unique with the quad illuminators being integrated to rear fenders just shy of the boot opening.
Back up front, the long bonnet hides a 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8, the same F154 used in the 488 GTB and its successor, the F8 Tributo, here outputting 449kW and 760Nm - a slight increase over the Portofino. Power reaches the rear wheels via an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission lifted from the new SF90 Stradale and helps it sprint to 100km/h from rest in a claimed 3.4 seconds.
Inside, the Roma is clearly styled and appointed to be a sporty but still rather luxurious grand tourer. It sports two seats though Ferrari classifies this as a ‘2+’ in their parlance, perhaps to denote the space behind the seats being enough for nominal cargo storage.
There’s a proper boot out back, as you might expect, but Ferrari has not disclosed how large it is nor have they released any photos with it open to allow for some clever estimations. There are body hugging leather seats and a new sculpted dashboard design that’s not echoed in other models.
A portrait LCD touch panel is placed along the centre stack to toggle vehicle and infotainment features as well as HVAC functionality, working alongside a digital instrument cluster. There’s also a small passenger side display with limited control and, as usual for Ferraris, all drive functions are accessed through the steering wheel.
For more on Ferrari cars, check out our Showroom.
